In a company-wide email, Zhan Zhonghui, head of Lingxi Games, announced his desire to step down along with two other executives by the end of March with Zhou Bingshu, a seasoned game producer set to take over as head of Lingxi Games.

With Zhou being in his mid-thirties and Zhan approaching 50 years of age, this transition marks a shift towards younger leadership within the gaming industry. According to Reuters, the leadership decided to step down to allow the younger management team to grow.

Embracing young leadership

Parent company Alibaba has prioritised promoting people born after 1985 to management positions. This strategy is intended to enable the tech giant to uphold a startup mentality and avoid ‘getting stuck in old ways'.

Lingxi Games is renowned for its mobile hit "Three Kingdom Tactics," earning over $1 billion within its first two years according to SensorTower. Founded by Zhonghui after his tenure at NetEase, the company was acquired by Alibaba in 2017, becoming Lingxi Games.

As part of a comprehensive restructuring effort, Alibaba has also implemented a holding company management model and divided its business into six primary units, according to Reuters. In addition, leadership changes have occurred within Alibaba's domestic e-commerce, cloud, and local services divisions over the past year.